Nightflyers by George R. R. Martin
"Nightflyers" is a collection of science fiction narratives, comprising four short stories and two novellas, originally published between 1973 and 1980. The tales are set in diverse and distant futures, predominantly on alien planets or deep-space vessels, featuring human characters navigating complex challenges. Each story explores themes of conflict, whether stemming from external alien circumstances or personal internal struggles. For instance, "Override" follows Kabaraijian, a gem miner who faces survival challenges when his control over a team of felons is compromised. In contrast, "Weekend in a War Zone" presents Andrew Birch, an unwilling participant in a profit-driven combat scenario. The narrative "And Seven Times Never Kill Man" depicts a trader's efforts to protect a peaceful native population from a militant faction, while "Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring" delves into deeper psychological turmoil experienced by its protagonist. The novella "A Song for Lya" addresses the complex nature of human connection through a couple’s engagement with an alien religious practice. Finally, the titular novella "Nightflyers" showcases a crew of misfits aboard a ship plagued by mysterious fatalities, emphasizing their individual and collective struggles for survival. Overall, the collection intricately weaves together themes of conflict, identity, and the human condition in a speculative future.
On this Page
Nightflyers
First published: 1985
Type of work: Collected works
Type of plot: Science fiction—future history
Time of work: The distant future
Locale: Various locations on Earth and in deep space
The Plot
Nightflyers is a collection of four short stories and two novellas originally published in science-fiction anthologies and the magazine Analog between 1973 and 1980. Although the stories vary widely in setting, all but one take place on far-away planets or on deep-space vessels and feature human characters thousands of years in the future. All the stories deal with problems characters must confront, whether posed by alien circumstances or by personal dilemmas.
In some of the stories, the source of conflict is external. “Override,” for example, is about Kabaraijian, a “corpse handler” who mines for gems on a harsh colony world by mentally controlling a team of debrained felons. When his control is overridden, he must use his wits to survive. Unlike the capable Kabaraijian, Andrew Birch of “Weekend in a War Zone” is an underdog who finds himself in an unpleasant situation when he signs up to fight in combat set up for profit by two competing organizations that cater to macho militarism. “And Seven Times Never Kill Man” is set on a colony world in which a religious-military faction called the Steel Angels threatens the existence of the peaceful native Jaenshi. Although repelled by the violence of the Steel Angels, human trader Arik neKrol attempts to teach the Jaenshi how to fight. The only ones interested are those whose shrines have been destroyed and whose clans have been scattered. The Steel Angels are subdued when the Jaenshi “miraculously” appear to have been visited by the Steel Angels’ god.
The conflict is more internal in “Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring.” In this story, Kerin daVittio nearly is overwhelmed by his experience of Nowhere, a vast, dark void next to the “star ring,” a space-warp device, where his wife, Jennifer Gray, is chief theorist. Such internal conflict is more fully described in the novella “A Song for Lya,” in which Robb and Lyanna, a couple possessing extrasensory perception, are called to a world on which human colonists are joining the alien religion, in which every member of the species willingly becomes “Joined” to a parasite that eventually kills them in “Final Union.” Most human outsiders see this as a form of suicide, but the couple come to realize that in becoming Joined and in going to their deaths, adherents of the Shkeen religion experience feelings of love and peace that transcend human efforts to attain them.
Conflicts are both external and internal in the novella “Nightflyers,” which concerns a team of misfits searching for a legendary spacefaring alien race aboard a ship captained by Royd Eris, who appears to the crew only as a hologram. All the characters have personal issues that further complicate their primary problem, which is that the ship begins killing them off, one by one. Those who survive do so, like Kabaraijian in “Override,” through maintaining their rationality and through physical courage.